Ich schreibe heute auf Englisch…
In translating „man“, the first thing to do is to determine whether the speaker really means „I“, or means „people in general“. If „man“ really means „I“, then in English you would probably say „I“; if it means „people in general“ you would probably use „you“, though „one“ is also used and not only by aristocrats – I’ll come back to that point later. It is worth noting that when „you“ is used to mean „people in general“, a question with „you“ is also answered with „you“, not „I“. I have had to make that clear to many classes in the past: „How do you open a tin of corned beef?“ – „You [not „I“!] detach the metal ‚key‘ and fit it to the protruding end of the metal strip,…“ However, „man“ sentences in German are also very often translated as passive sentences in English. „Das tut man nicht“ = „It’s not done“. There must be dozens of other common, simple examples, but I can’t think of any at the moment.
However, in the case of the woman with the terrible experiences quoted by Sally, surely she is using „man“ as a way of putting distance between herself and those experiences; depersonalising them makes them less painful in retrospect. I suspect that she would have used equivalent, though different, language strategies in English, e.g. „Man war sehr traurig“ might translate as „It was a very sad time“, and for „Man muss sich um die Kinder kümmern“ she would almost certainly have said „The children have to be looked after.“
As far as the „upper class“ use of „one“ = „I“ is concerned, those old enough will remember that it was first brought to the attention of the general, non-aristocratic, public in 1973, when Princess Anne married Mark Phillips. In advance of her wedding Princess Anne gave an interview to the BBC – an unprecedented thing at the time – in which she referred to herself as „one“ throughout. The whole nation was ‚laughing out loud“, as the internet nerds would say, for weeks afterwards. The BBC radio programme „Weekending“, which took a satirical look at the past – and next – week’s news, did a merciless parody of the broadcast of the wedding ceremony from Westminster Abbey, culminating with the Princess taking her marriage vows with the words „One will“. There was also a nice touch when something went wrong in the course of the ceremony and the Queen commented: „Two are not amused.“ (I must share with you two other gems from that parody that have stuck in my mind, though they are quite irrelevant to the present topic: „And here come the Hesse sisters, Princess Jessie of Hesse and Princess Bessie of Hesse; one dressy, one messy, but both incredibly princessy“ – I had to think of that when I saw Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie at Prince William’s wedding! – „And now all the important people have arrived, and so have the friends of the bridegroom…“.)
Anyway, as one aristocratic young lady said in self-defence afterwards: „One can’t help it if one has been brought up to say ‚one‘, can one?“
Just an interesting sideline on that: On the occasion of one of the Queen’s jubilees the BBC made a film portraying a year in her life. There was one scene in it in which she was rehearsing for an event at a venue she was unfamiliar with. To make sure she had got everything right, she repeated back to the responsible organiser what she had to do, and it went something like this: „So one comes in at this door, one walks down the middle of the hall and then one goes up the steps onto the stage…“ My impression on this occasion was that it was not at all unfitting; „one“ meant not „I“ but „the Queen“, as if she were separating her office from her person.
However, I would also maintain that it is far from being only the upper classes who use „one“; Wayne Rooney may not, but I think many reasonably educated and linguistically aware people do, so I am not surprised at Sally’s frequently hearing it on the Radio 4 „Today“ programme. I would expect that it comes most often in sentences of the „One wonders whether…“ type; and my analysis would be that that doesn’t mean quite the same as „I wonder whether“; it means „I wonder, and I expect, although I have no evidence, that very many other people wonder the same, and even more would if they were informed about this issue.“
A golden rule, however, is: If you don’t want to sound like Princess Anne, or the other aristocratic lady quoted above, the most you can get away with, is two „ones“ in a sentence, or even a paragraph. „One wonders what one will be doing this time next year“ is acceptable. „One wonders what one’s children would say if one were to leave one’s husband“ isn’t.
Finally: Max Headroom’s example from interaction training only serves to reinforce my prejudices about interaction training. To me, saying not „Man tut das nicht“ but „Du sollst das nicht tun“ practically provokes the response „Wieso ich? Was ist mit Dir?“.
Now one is tired, so one must end here…

Lovely! And I couldn’t agree more about princesses Beatrice and Eugenie at Catherine and William’s wedding. They have upped their act since and got someone in to improve their style Mojo. I think I was about 12 at the time Princess Anne married and remember asking my parents why she said „one“ all the time. I don’t remember the nation laughing out loud, or the parody done of it, but I DO remember thinking how stiff that interview was. I agree of course, saying „man“ is a way of depersonalising an experience and something Germans do a lot and a key to understanding how this nation ticks. Tony’s contribution wins the „Comment of month“ – I’m still working out what the prize will be!